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“Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men’s reality.
Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of ‘the rat race’ is not yet final.”
–Gonzo Papers, Vol. 1: The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
For us, the rat race has ended. We work at our own pace. Be it furious or leisurely; it is our own. We sleep when we are tired and we wake when rested. Something that would have seemed a novelty only one year ago.
We’d heard the myth of the vacation and retirement. We knew that the legends told of rogue humans leaving their choking existence for a life of freedom were the stories we wanted to explore, share, and inject ourselves into. We wanted to create a life that we didn’t have to constantly plan to escape.
“What will you do when you run out of money?” our parents repeatedly ask of our Quest. We ran out of money long ago working ten hours a day for someone else while paying bankers to live in a house we would likely never be able to pay off.
That’s what it means to have loans and credit cards, right?: The money ran out.
So why not then follow freedom’s road and see where it leads? We ditched the mortgage and the plastic cards and are beholden to no one now. We owe nothing to anyone but ourselves. With nothing to own, we have nothing to lose. We’ve gained perspective. Our life doesn’t revolve around bills anymore. We no longer invest in retirement accounts; we invest in adventure, in ourselves, in the makings of a world that we believe can exist for anyone who wants it… and it is paying off in inspiration and pure, solid-gold happiness.
Pretty sure this motel room’s giant, tinted, reflective headboard is actually a 2-way mirror. They sure got a fuckin’ show.
This week we cruised through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota on the road to Gonzoville to do our best to follow our own path in honoring our Weird Hero, one Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.
All the smaller parts of this journey come together to make up the larger one, the story of us. Our adventure is about striking out against injustice. Revisiting our initial inspirations and reigniting atrophied intuition. Summoning the will to start over. It’s about defining personal freedom! It’s about throwing up on an alligator and dropping in an elevator! Confronting and embracing fears! Living the life we were meant to live!
Enlightenment was not coming from the fluorescent-lit world of rats racing through mazes of cubicles. It was coming up from the ground, down from the stars and from inside the heart. These things have always and will always be free. The best things in life, right?
VIA AD ASTRA!
-Kristina & Dave-
You can still help to honor Dr. Hunter S. Thompson and be part of GonzoFest 2014 by donating a couple bucks to The Gonzo Foundation, a non-profit created to promote literature, journalism and political activism through the legacy of Dr. HST.
Free Range Quest 